Three women on the verge of history

This story was originally reported by Mel Leonor Barclay and Lydia Chebbine of The 19th. Meet Mel and Lydia and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

It would be hard to pin down the exact location of Peggy Flanagan, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Gina Hinojosa at any given time these days. For these criss-crossing campaigns locked in tight statewide races, the only option is onward — to a Savannah barbershop, toward a reservation in the far corners of northern Minnesota, onto a rally stage in San Antonio.

Along the way, these candidates are disrupting a system that has relegated women like them to the margins of political power for as long as the United States has been a nation. From the outside, their campaigns are a mild tremor rattling the status quo. If they win their races in November, voters will have effectively shifted the balance of power and added a crack to a foundation that sometimes feels unshakeable.

During stops in the southeast corner of Georgia, Bottoms made clear that protecting Georgians’ voting rights from attacks that could weaken representation for Black voters would be a top priority as governor. If elected, Bottoms would become the first Black woman to lead a state in the history of the country, a milestone that has twice eluded Georgia.

Campaigning along the shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota last week, Flanagan told voters she understood the pain of living in financial instability, having experienced it as a child. Born to Indigenous and Irish parents, Flanagan could become the first Native American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

And in a hopscotch of events between Austin and San Antonio, Gina Hinojosa’s populist appeal — accented by her ease with Spanish — could make her the first Latina to ever hold the top job in Texas, which grew its Latino population more than any other state in the last decade.

The 19th documented some of the final days of these historic campaigns, tracing how these candidates — at once ordinary and revolutionary — are working to do something no woman like them has done before.

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Peggy Flanagan and her husband, Tom Weber, take a quiet moment to appreciate Lake Superior from the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in Minnesota on October 24, 2026. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)

Flanagan is Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation. Her Anishinaabe name means “speaks in a loud and clear voice woman,” which aptly describes her work in politics so far, standing out as a voice on issues that previously had little attention. Case in point: Flanagan pushed for the creation of the nation’s first state-level office to combat violence against Native Americans, particularly women.

But Flanagan is also warm. During a stop in Grand Marais, Minnesota, on a cool fall morning, she greeted locals with hugs, and leaned down with a big smile to pet a dog. Her sweaters nod to this or that Minnesota town, and her love for her state. When connecting with voters, sometimes these things do the talking.

Campaigns can be unpredictable, and in a race with an extremely narrow margin like the Georgia governor’s race, every minute on the trail counts. During the start of her campaign swing in southeast Georgia, Bottoms learned two of her staffers had been involved in a car accident. Both are now recuperating at home, but Bottoms took time off the trail to check on them before working to get her campaign back on schedule.

Gina Hinojosa greets supporters at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, on October 19, 2026. Her populist appeal, accented by her ease with Spanish, could make her the first Latina governor in Texas history. (Brenda Bazán for The 19th)

Hinojosa launched her campaign with the slogan, “No te dejes” — a bold move given that, as she says, there’s not a perfect translation for it. “Know your worth and defend it,” is how Hinojosa translated the saying in a recent interview, though she has a few different variations. She learned it from her mom, who was born in Mexico and said it with a stern tone — much like Hinojosa does.

Hinojosa’s bet could pay off. At a recent get-out-the-vote event at Texas State — where almost half of all students are Latino — people were eager to greet her and voice their support. Polling shows Hinojosa has a 24-point advantage with Latino voters in the state. Among young Latinas, her support is more than four times that of her opponent, Gov. Greg Abbott.

Women voters will play a decisive role in each of these candidates’ races. Women are more likely to be feeling the economic uncertainty that has made Democratic wins in Texas, Georgia and Minnesota possible. All three candidates are also parenting children under age 18, a touchpoint for many voters who, like them, are worried about the future.

Peggy Flanagan pays tribute to her political mentor, Paul Wellstone, at his memorial in Eveleth, Minnesota, on October 23, 2026. She got her start in politics working on his 2002 Senate campaign. Now, she’s running for the seat he once held. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)

In college, Flanagan got her political start on U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s campaign, doing outreach to Native American voters. Wellstone, a populist and progressive leader of the party, died 16 days before the 2002 election. In between campaign stops, Flanagan paid a quiet, emotional tribute to her mentor.

Flanagan is running to take his old seat, and if she wins in November, her election will mark a victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that her mentor worked hard to nurture.

Hinojosa previously described herself as a progressive, but she’s running in a Republican bastion and believes that the label populist better fits the demands of the moment. On this day of campaigning, Hinojosa took a break from voter outreach to formally file a lawsuit demanding the release of emails between Abbott and Elon Musk. The lawsuit is part of Hinojosa’s disciplined focus on corruption, wealth and power.

“Is this going to be a Texas that is by and for the people, or is it just the billionaires’ world, and we just live here? This is in-your-face corruption,” Hinojosa said, speaking to reporters after filing the lawsuit.

Keisha Lance Bottoms talks with voters at a Savannah barbershop on October 24, 2026. Her mother owned a hair salon for decades, a connection Bottoms drew on as she made her case to Georgia’s working and middle classes.
(Rita Harper for The 19th)

“I spent a lot of time in the hair salon. My mom owned a hair salon for decades, actually,” Bottoms told a group gathered at a Savannah barbershop. In a state that Trump won in 2024 on his path to reelection, Bottoms is telling voters she’ll work for the working and middle classes, for small business.

“If you want somebody who's going to stand up for Georgia and be forward-thinking, be willing to work with people who may not align politically, but have the best interest of Georgia at heart, then I’m your candidate.”

Winning is far from assured for any of the women, whose campaigns have been battered by millions of dollars in attack spending — Bottoms and Hinojosa in particular. Bottoms is facing Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive who has flooded the race with his wealth; he’s projected to spend more than $200 million in his bid for governor. Hinojosa is facing one of the most powerful politicians in the Republican Party, a three-term governor.

Both have worked to make up the gap by being out in front of voters, attracting press coverage and counting on old-fashioned, community organizing: Tell your family and friends to vote.

Peggy Flanagan celebrates backstage after a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders in Duluth, Minnesota, on October 24, 2026. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)

The campaign trail can be grueling, but with Election Day in sight, there’s a lot of joy at the possibilities.

In Texas, few would have anticipated the way Hinojosa’s campaign has taken off. What started as a long-shot bid by a state lawmaker little known to voters outside of Austin has turned into one of the most dynamic races in the country.

“This is so exciting,” Hinojosa said of the start of early voting in Texas before walking out to speak to voters.

After the speech comes the photo line. After her keynote address at the annual banquet for the Savannah Branch NAACP, Bottoms worked the room talking to supporters, making sure everyone had made plans to vote. Enthusiasm for Hinojosa in Texas shows up in the long photo lines at the end of her events.

Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, spent over 30 minutes taking photos and chatting with a stream of supporters at the end of their Duluth rally. Flanagan’s staffers joked that it was a very “Minnesota goodbye.”

Peggy Flanagan sits on a gymnasium floor reviewing notes in Duluth, Minnesota, on October 24, 2026. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)

In their own words and styles, all three women are quick to say that they are not running to make history. Their identities deeply inform the work that they are doing, but that’s not why voters should support them. Bottoms says she’ll leave that aspect of her candidacy to the history books. Hinojosa much prefers to say she’ll be the first Texas governor from the Rio Grande Valley, a heavily Latino part of the state. Out campaigning in Minnesota, Flanagan says simply that it’s probably time a Native American woman had a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Making history is part of the plan, but not the point. On the campaign trail, it’s clear that as far as trailblazing goes, win or lose, they’ve done the work.

Jamie Kelter Davis and Brenda Bazan contributed reporting.

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